Apun Ghar Interest Subvention Housing Scheme

What is Apun Ghar?

Apun Ghar is an interest subvention scheme for housing loans for regular State Government employees of Assam. It was formulated by the Finance (Audit & Fund) Department, Government of Assam through Office Memorandum No. FM.45/2016/157 dated 21 March 2017, following an announcement in the Assam Budget Speech for 2016-17.

A note on the name before anything else. Apun Ghar is sometimes searched for as an "Apun Ghar rental housing scheme", but the Government of Assam has not notified a rental housing component under Apun Ghar. The scheme as notified is a home loan interest subsidy delivered through the State Bank of India for employees buying or building their own house. A reader looking for low-cost rental housing for economically weaker families in Assam should look instead at the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes component of PMAY-Urban, which is a separate central-state programme, not Apun Ghar.

Under Apun Ghar the State Government decided to provide housing loans to its employees through SBI. SBI proposed to extend the loan at 8.50 per cent for women and 8.55 per cent for men, and the Government decided to provide an interest subvention of 3.5 per cent. After the subvention, the employee gets a housing loan of up to Rs 15.00 lakh at 5.00 per cent for women and 5.05 per cent for men.

Who is eligible for Apun Ghar?

You can apply if:

• You are a regular employee of the Government of Assam. The scheme is restricted to regular state government service.
• You are at least 21 years of age.
• You have at least 5 years of residual service remaining.
• Repayment will be complete by age 70 if you have pensionable service, or by age 60 if you are a non-pensionable service holder.
• The property is within the State of Assam.

The loan can be sanctioned for four purposes: construction of a house on an existing plot in the name of the government servant or the spouse, purchase of land and construction of a house, purchase of a flat, or purchase of a readymade building: in every case within Assam.

Joint borrowing is allowed. Close relatives can come together to avail a housing loan jointly if they are all employees of the Government of Assam, and the government interest subvention is availed on the loan clubbed together up to the prescribed limit.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are not a regular State Government employee of Assam. Employees of central government, PSUs, private employers and contractual or casual staff of the state are outside the scheme as notified.
• You are under 21 years of age, or have less than 5 years of residual service.
• You want to purchase an ancestral plot of land from a close relative such as parents, spouse, siblings or children. The Office Memorandum expressly states this will not be covered.
• The property is outside Assam.
• You are looking for rented accommodation. Apun Ghar finances ownership, not tenancy.

How much does Apun Ghar save an employee?

Two further mechanics matter. First, the subsidy is not paid to the bank in the abstract, EMIs are fixed on the basis of SBI's offered rate of 8.50 per cent for women and 8.55 per cent for others, and the subsidy amount is credited to the employee's salary account from where the instalments are recovered, being charged to a prefunded subsidy account maintained by the Government of Assam. Second, the rate is not permanently fixed: after 2 years from the date of sanction, a floating rate linked to SBI's MCLR applies, and the Office Memorandum records that a formula would be worked out on a floating-rate basis so that employees get the benefit if interest rates fall in future.

What documents are required?

How to apply for an Apun Ghar housing loan

1. Download the application form. The Finance Department publishes the application form for the home loan on finance.assam.gov.in alongside the scheme document.
2. Fill the SBI-provided application format with the complete set of documents as per the check list. The format is customised for Apun Ghar and contains a due and drawal statement of your salary.
3. Get the salary statement certified by your Drawing and Disbursing Officer (DDO). The Office Memorandum requires the DDO to fill and certify this within the format itself.
4. Submit the application through your DDO, not directly at a branch counter. Applications are routed by employees through their DDOs.
5. Await SBI's due diligence and scrutiny. The SBI team carries out the due diligence and accords final sanction based on the proposal.
6. Choose your branch for disbursement. After sanction, the file is sent for documentation and disbursement of the loan to a branch of the applicant's choice.
7. Complete insurance formalities. The house or flat financed by the bank must be comprehensively insured by the employee against fire, riots, earthquake, lightning and flood. The insurance premium can itself be financed by the bank as an additional term loan, known as a Suraksha loan.

How repayment works

Recovery is through a check-off facility given by the DDO of the employee for recovery of both interest and principal — that is, the EMI is deducted at source from salary rather than left to the employee to remit.

Where the loan runs beyond retirement, the state decided to allow a repayment schedule up to 70 years of age for employees with pensionable service. SBI offered this for employees who maintain their pension account with SBI and who give an undertaking and Standing Instruction (SI) to SBI for deduction of EMIs from the pension account. SBI then takes responsibility for deducting the EMI beyond retirement, and for the employee's convenience the EMI is set higher during service and lower after retirement.

On completion of repayment of all dues for loans above Rs 10 lakh, the SBI branch releases the title deeds against acknowledgement where a mortgage was created, and issues a No-Due certificate to the borrower with copies to the DDO and the Finance Department.

Takeover of a housing loan from another bank or financial institution is permitted, subject to eligibility criteria, and that facility became effective one year from the date of issue of the Office Memorandum.

Where to raise a problem

The scheme has a dedicated grievance route built into it. A Grievance Redressal Cell is opened at each SBI Regional Business Office, at some identified SBI branches and at the Local Head Office (LHO), headed by a Deputy General Manager specially for the scheme, to handle grievances of Government of Assam employees. SBI also committed to giving concerned departments a single dedicated window at bank level for all dealings related to the scheme.

For subvention and state-side questions, the Finance (Audit & Fund) Department, Assam Secretariat, Dispur is the administrative authority. SBI gives the Government of Assam an audited certificate on utilisation of subsidy on a yearly basis at the end of each financial year.

Common reasons an Apun Ghar application fails

• Application not routed through the DDO, or the due and drawal salary statement not certified in the format.
• Less than 5 years of residual service, which is a firm eligibility condition.
• Repayment schedule crossing the age cap to 70 for pensionable service, 60 for non-pensionable.
• Purchase of an ancestral plot from a close relative, which is expressly excluded.
• Property outside Assam.
• No pension account with SBI and no Standing Instruction, where the repayment period extends past retirement.
• Applying outside the subvention window. The Office Memorandum states the benefits of interest subvention are available to eligible employees who apply within 2 years from the date of issuance of the Government Office Memorandum or notification, so the current position must be confirmed with the Finance Department or SBI before relying on the subvented rate.

What Apun Ghar does not do

Apun Ghar does not provide rental accommodation, a rent subsidy, or housing for the general public. It is a benefit tied to regular state government employment, delivered as a reduced interest rate on a home loan of up to Rs 15 lakh. Households outside government service looking for housing support in Assam should look at the state's PMAY-Gramin and PMAY-Urban implementation through the Panchayat & Rural Development and Housing & Urban Affairs departments respectively, which are separate programmes with their own eligibility rules.